Spatial sound is possible to create by a surround system that comprises different loudspeakers for different audio channels. In a standard setup of a stereo system of two loudspeakers, said loudspeakers span 60 degrees. For giving the impression that sound sources move around inside the area between the two loudspeakers, amplitude panning can be used. Such sound sources, whose positions correspond to positions away from the loudspeakers are usually referred to as “virtual sources” or “phantom images”. In other words, a virtual sound source is localized by the listener, but is not produced by a loudspeaker at the location.
Patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,949 presents a cross-talk cancellation network, which was the first description of how to make the sound appear to come from outside the angle spanned by the loudspeakers. Said publication assumes widely spaced loudspeakers and free-field sound propagation, which means it does not take into account the influence of the listeners head on the incident sound waves. Because of its assumption the implementation with analogue electronics is straightforward.
Influence of the listeners head is introduced in patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,651. This publication describes how this effect can be included in virtual systems. The design of a cross-talk cancellation system then becomes significantly more complicated than in the free-field case and a “shuffler” is introduced, which is an efficient way to implement a 2-by-2 filter matrix.
The problem with sensitivity to head movement when using two widely spaced loudspeakers is considered in patent publication WO 95/15069. In this publication, the gain of the off-diagonal elements of the symmetric 2-by-2 filter matrix is reduced, thereby increasing the size of the sweet spot at the expense of a modest decrease in performance. It is assumed that the source material is binaural, which means it is prepared for playback over headphones.
Also, patent publication EP0880871B1 describes various ways to use two closely spaced loudspeakers for spatial enhancement. There is some discussion of how to avoid the low-frequency boost in the cross-talk cancellation network and in the loudspeaker inputs for virtual images well outside the angle spanned by the loudspeakers. It is not considered how to adjust the strength of the spatial effect or how to constrain the processed sound relative to the unprocessed sound. The emphasis is mainly on the design and properties of the digital filters necessary for implementing virtual sources at specific positions in high-fidelity applications.
It is easily appreciated that when two loudspeakers are close together, the area between them is not wide enough for the spatial effect resulting from moving the sources around inside the area. In this case it is necessary to create the impression that the sound is coming from outside the angle spanned by the two loudspeakers. The principle for achieving this is based on processing the inputs to the two loudspeakers so that the sound reproduced at the ears of the listener to some extent approximates the sound that would have been produced there by a real sound source. It is well known that a result of this principle is that a powerful out-of-phase low-frequency output is required in order to create a virtual source well outside the angle spanned by the loudspeakers. There is a good reason to consider ways to limit the input to the loudspeaker, especially with portable devices.
The centre of a sound stage is often the most important part. However, not much attention has been paid to it in the context of spatial enhancement systems. In stereo music tracks, e.g. the vocals are usually in the centre. Similarly in films, the speech is targeted to the centre. It is advantageous that this part is not coloured spectrally by the spatial processing. In addition to preserving the sound quality, the faithful reproduction of the centre of the sound stage guarantees a reasonably loud acoustical output from the small loudspeakers in portable devices.
It can be seen, that the solutions of related art may not fulfill the requirements of all the current electronic devices. Devices that comprise two loudspeakers very close to each other (e.g. on both sides of a display) can be used as example. With these devices the direction of sound may have a significant role. The present invention is considered for use mainly when the virtual sources are essentially static. Thus, examples of applications are enhancement of music and video in either the two channel stereo format or the 5.1 multi-channel format, and teleconferencing in which the voices of the participants are allocated to a relatively small number of positions. However the invention can also be used as a post-processing module for other types of audio material in which the virtual sources are not necessarily static.